hackVIOLETEYEStrappedvol1
by origreatguy
Summary: Tsukasa's perception of the events in .hackSIGN, as well as other information giving background story and filling gaps .hackSIGN may have left. I've finally gotten back to this, and have started it up by fixing some grammatical errors that bugged me.


Seeing as this is a new story, I'm gonna have to do the disclaimer again. Pretty much all of this is owned by Bandai, except for Tsukasa's thoughts that I just pop in there and other stuff that I write in to fill up the gaps. I'm basically here to explain why Tsukasa does a bunch of stuff that may seem without reason to you.

.hackVIOLETEYES/trapped/vol.1

By origreatguy

Chapter One: Role Play

I am lying down on an earthen floor. Slowly, gradually, I push myself up onto my arms. Wait a moment. Earthen floor? I open my eyes... what! I'm... not in my room anymore...? I pull my hand from the ground. Some sticky, sap-like substance is connecting the two. I pull away and look at my hand. How? There are... gloves... on my hand... The sticky substance is still on me, made evident when I separate my fingers. I look down and see a staff, with a red orb floating in the middle of the crescent shape at its head. No... The World? How? The possibility isn't unquestionable, yet... I pick up the staff and look around. The dungeon... the dungeon where it happened. I look at the chest. The one that glowed with the strange light.

Suddenly I hear footsteps falling heavily on the ground. I turn my head around. It is a female Heavy Blade, with brown hair, tanned skin and patterns of yellow paint over her body. She has minimal clothing. I despise such show-offy displays of a person's body. I didn't want to trust her.

"Oh, hello! I didn't know I had company. Hi there. I'm Mimiru," she says. She seemed friendly... then again, many people seemed friendly at first. They were the ones that hurt you the most when they betrayed you. They might give you a pat on the back, only to find yourself pinned on your back five seconds later. "Is something wrong? Are you okay?" I turn around, apprehensive. Upon seeing my staff, a certain interest seemed to sparkle in her eyes. "Wow! I hardly ever see a Wavemaster working alone. You must be powerful, aren't you?" It's just another idiot who wants a Wavemaster in their party. I instantly think of using a Sprite Ocarina. Perhaps... If this is The World, then this should work... I use a Sprite Ocarina and escape from the inevitable offer to join her party. I regret the decision to become a Wavemaster. Why could I not be a Heavy Axeman? No one bothered Heavy Axemen. They were tough. They weren't the kind of people who had horrible pasts.

I am in the same grassy field I was just in moments ago. It is evening. I recall the events in the dungeon. The cat. The chest. The sharp panging in my head... and the feeling of losing everything, of being nothing, like a ghost, but a blind, deaf and mute ghost. "What was I doing?" I say to myself. How could this be The World? I feel something touching me... an insect. I brush it away. The fact that I was able to do this is still a novelty to me. How could you live inside a game, and feel and interact with it? "Where... where am I?" Yet again, I hear heavy footsteps. Is it her again...? There are several people, so she may have brought her party... I look at them. They are in fact three Blademasters, apparently in uniform. One of them, in the middle, seemed to be the most important, as he had foreboding devilish horns on his helmet, had red glowing eyes and red clothing under his armor. The two at his sides were with plain helmets, blue eyes and blue clothes. This people were meant to be intimidating. Were they player killers? What did they want with me? I stand up and raise my staff in defense.

"We are not here to fight," the important one said. "Greetings. We're the 13th squadron of the Crimson Knights. I'm sure you've heard of us." I smirk at this. Typical gung-ho male who's not afraid of flaunting his power, and maybe even fudging it a little.

"We Crimson Knights value courage, stability, and tolerance," the one on his left said. "We were formed to look after The World and ensure its smooth operation." This was even more amusing. Go ahead, moron. Prove me right.

"We are constantly keeping watch on all illegal activities inside The World." So they're the anti-player killers now. Still, I'm not going to have dealings with them.

"Then I'm of no interest to you," I reply.

"You're wrong," the important one says. "We are interested in all who come to The World." Interested in all who come to The World? You're not exactly helping your case. "Just a few days ago... you were seen with a mock cat player, am I correct?"

A few days ago! Just how long ago did this happen? "A... a cat?" is all I manage to spit out. The three of them look at each other.

"Someone saw you in the presence of this player."

"That character was obviously edited illegally." So? Who cares if that player looks different?

"We cannot ignore this fact. However, we do not intend to cause you any trouble." Then why don't you leave me alone? Is it not clear that you are causing me trouble? "Is this cat player male or female? We need more information. Where can we find that player? We won't inconvenience you any further. I promise you that." A lie. I had to take this situation into my hands. I immediately warped out of the field.

I stand in front of the Chaos Gate. It was always one of my favorite parts of The World, as it was not something that could be real, but now, with the feeling that The World has become real, I strangely seem to like it even more. But then, is everyone experiencing this? Or am I the only one, the victim of some twisted scheme? Golden circles appear and descend, revealing the same female Heavy Blade I just met with. She eyes me strangely. I turn my back on her and walk away. Footsteps. She is following me. All right, then. If she asks me to join her party I will try to lose her somehow. I keep walking, and the footsteps seem to have stopped. She is not following me. I look around the Root Town, and no one is here, for some reason. Good. I lie on my back next to a wall, my legs resting on it.

"You sure don't talk much." She must have snuck past me somehow. I prepare for the inevitable. "So, tell me, do you always do that?" This surprises me. Does she really have no intention of exploiting me? Is she just talking to me so she can talk to me? "Are you even listening to me? Ugh! The silent treatment again," she says. If she doesn't want me in her party... what does she want with me? Or is she just here to get sick pleasure from torturing me? "You know, I happened to see something earlier." Again, I feel something touching me. That same insect. "You disappeared in front of the Crimson Knights." She keeps on babbling. Go away, you stupid bug.

"Pest," I say to it.

"Sorry, what was that?" Is she still here? Why can't she get to the point? "Maybe you know what you're doing, but I don't think it's smart." So then, are you playing the concerned heroine act? I have to do something to get her to go away.

"Who cares," I say. "It doesn't really matter once I get out of here." I pause, hoping that will help.

"Huh? No! That's not what I mean." No, I have to work a little harder than that—wait! What is she doing following me? Apart from the Crimson Knights, she was the only one I had seen! Could she be behind this...? She seems to notice me thinking about this possibility, and gasps. "Is something wrong?" I quickly get up to my feet and look at her, wondering if she...

No. Impossible. "Ah, it's just too difficult to explain. Sorry," I say, not really meaning it.

"You know, if you keep pulling stunts like that, they're not gonna let you back in anymore. What exactly do you plan to do if you run into those guys again?" Ha! Getting back in is not my problem. Yet... the situation presents itself to me for the first time. It would appear the Crimson Knights were truly the ones who were after me. But what about the Heavy Blade? What is her purpose here? In any case, everyone else was acting as though they didn't know what was happening to me... and I had no intention of submitting to other people anymore. I am beyond them now.

"That might... be fun. We'll see about that," I tell her.

"Huh?" She is pitifully devoid of understanding.

"Besides, if I don't want to get involved, I just won't access for a while." I may as well keep up the pretense that I am a normal player, controller in hand. I walk away from her.

"That is not the way the game is played!" I hear her yell. The way the game is played? If you think The World is played in a certain way, you are grossly mistaken. I approach the Chaos Gate. "Hey, wait! Are you sure that's okay?" No, of course not. But I no longer care what is okay.

"As I understand it, each person has his own way of playing the game, right?" With that closing statement, I raise my staff and log out. The familiar rainbow tunnel that was not really a tunnel envelops me. It is not a tunnel because it does not constrict one to forward or backward movement, but rather allows one freedom from The World, just as The World allows freedom from the real world.

All at once I stop moving. The rainbow is overwhelmed by a gray force moving in a spiral pattern. Still it is not a tunnel, but now it is a dead end, forbidding movement to anywhere... except back where I came. I fall down to earth at the exact spot I prepared to leave it. I turn around. She is staring at me strangely. My old suspicions come back to mind. How could she not be involved with this?

"You know, I just don't like you." Why I don't like her will have to come later. I warp to a random field just to get away from her. I find myself in a snowy field. Its level is too high for me. Damn it. I cannot just go straight back to the Chaos Gate. I decide to kill some time. I walk around. I hear stomping. Free-roaming monsters. If I can't leave the field, I shall have to evade them. I call up a Grunty. The monsters reach me, and they continue to wander around aimlessly, too stupid to realize that their prey is right next to them.

"Take me to the dungeon," I tell the Grunty. It obeys, and the beast of burden scampers to an old, snow-covered castle. The entrance is obviously near. I feel a jolt. The Grunty has bumped straight into the wall. If they can give monsters intelligence, why not Grunties? It continues to bump into the wall.

"Not too smart," I point out, half talking to myself and half talking to the Grunty. Maybe it is responding... it stops hitting the wall and walks parallel to the castle. Maybe it finally got some common sense... no. It is now hitting the wall at a different location.

I warp back to the Chaos Gate, then to a grassy field. I want to hurt something. I appear in the field, portals to my left and right, and the Spring of Myst in front of me. Of the three, I decide to fight the thing that won't fight back.

I approach the Spring of Myst, wondering what I will drop to make the gigantic raindrop emerge. I eventually choose a level 1 Blademaster weapon I had acquired for some reason that I didn't quite remember. Sure enough, the blue thing appears.

"Hey, did something just fall in here? Did you drop this Golden Axe? Well, did you?" That insufferable smirk on its face. What is he so happy about? "Or maybe it was this Silver Axe!" His blind cheeriness drives me into a rage. I swing my staff at it. "Oh, no!" it cries. Yes. "Oh, no" indeed. I swing at it again, hoping to strike a hit this time. "Oh, no," it says again, and it disappears. Hmph. You win this time.

I hear laughing behind me. I look at the source. It is a Blademaster. This one seems to be unrelated to the Crimson Knights. "You having fun?" he says. I turn around, staff ready. What does he want with me! "Greetings, I'm Bear. You know, I like to do that too whenever I happen to be feeling down." And? "I can lend you a hand if you need any help. I'm always supporting newbies here and—" At the sound of the word "newbie" I warp out. I heard that word too often. Like I heard the phrase "join my party" too often.

I warp to Delta server. From there I walk away from the Chaos Gate and enter the heart of Mac Anu. It is a bustling place. Full of people. Yet I must go here. I go to the item shop and refill my stock of Sprite Ocarinas. I always have at least 20, but it seems I will need a lot more now. I notice I am running short on money. I will have to sell some objects. But... later. I go straight across the stairway and down the path to the Recorder. I'm standing there, wondering how to tell him to save my game's progress without meaning "save my life's progress." What if I didn't save? Would I be able to leave? Or I would I start again in that same dungeon? Would the Heavy Blade still come? Would I have any memory of what happened?

"Well, what do you want me to do?" the Recorder asks. I scowl.

"Just save my game." I walk away.

"Okay, fine. Sheesh." Whose idea was it to give the Recorder an attitude? I walk over to an area near the Elf's Haven. People pass me by, not paying any mind. If I had one wish, perhaps it would be... no, it would not be this. If I had one wish, it would be for people to accept me, and not try to hurt me all the time. I sit down at the edge, looking at the canal. It was false... once. Now it is real. I had daydreamed about this so much. That The World would become real, and the real world would be tossed aside. Now it is real... and yet I am unsatisfied. Because now, the people here are real. They can do real things to me.

A boat with two people on it floats on the canal. The first person I see on it is a female Heavy Axeman, dressed in blue and more modestly than the Heavy Blade, and with blue hair. The second... it's him! The important one, one of the Crimson Knights! He must have seen me, since he faces me and his eyes glow with a demonic fury. I run from the scene to the Chaos Gate and return to the server I previously entered. I try to log out again. Nothing happens. I do not even enter the rainbow "tunnel." Someone is warping in... oh. It's her again. I turn around and try to ignore her, hoping that she will ignore me.

"Bleeaaaaah!" I look at her. She's sticking her tongue out at me. How childish. And yet... how amusing. Congratulations... Mimiru. You've made me smile. I think back to when I was here before... am I the only one like this?

"Hey, can I ask you something?" I ask.

"Yeah, sure," she says. "There's no guarantee that I'll answer you, though." I decide to ignore her sarcasm this time.

"It's just that, I wanted to know... are you able to, you know, exit The World?"

'Huh? I don't understand what you're trying to ask me." Do I have to put it in simple terms for you?

"What I mean is, log out."

"Of course! After the last time I saw you, I logged out. Then I logged back in just a few minutes ago."

"I see. Is that right..." I leave, knowing I will get no answers from her. From a distance I hear her.

"Hello, explanation, please?" Right. She is oblivious to my situation. I sit on an overhanging, looking at the horizon and the ground below. "You mean to tell me that... you can't log out?" She snuck past me again.

"Looks that way," I answer. For some reason, whenever I'm with her, I have a feeling, the likes of which I have not felt for a long time. Just like when I was "happy forever," but not quite. It's a different feeling, and it seems to go in hand with feeling happy forever. I feel something greater than just trust. It is something greater than that. Maybe you're not so bad... Mimiru.

"I've never heard of something like that," she says. "Maybe it was something you did. Did you... did you do something to anger the Crimson Knights?"

"What do you mean, like cheating or something?" I ask.

"Well, I guess..." We are both equally clueless here. The bug again. I don't bother to do anything to it; I am too confused in the situation to care.

"I can't remember... there's no way, I haven't," I say, trying to make my case to a person who I hope can help me. "You don't need to believe me, but I really... I can't remember. I can't remember at all."

"I see. Well, I guess in the worst case you can log out just by resetting your terminal." By resetting my terminal? But I am here; I am not in my room. And besides, I would have done that already if I could! It was obvious! Everyone knew to do that when their computer was locked up! And she suggests it as though it were a novel idea...

"How... strange... This can't be...!" Could she really be behind it? I try to escape. I'm not going to stay here and find out. I am grabbed by the collar and thrown to the ground! What is she going to do to me!

"Hey, wait! Calm down!" I won't let her torture me anymore! I immediately get to my feet.

"Leave me alone!" I shout.

"Huh! What... what did you say!"

"Can't you just leave me alone?" I plead.

"Leave you alone? Who do you think you are! You are unbelievably selfish! I don't want to be the one to say this but the net is the same as the real world! There are certain rules that you have to observe when dealing with people, and you wont get treated with any respect if you don't get some manners!" 'The net is the same is the real world.' The net is my world now. There is no way she could know that unless she was behind it all! I have to get her to leave!

"Yeah, I know that. But I would like it if you would leave me alone from now on, okay?"

"So, just leave you alone?"

"Mmhmm." This seemed too easy.

"All right. Oh, I wanted to tell you... remember you said you didn't like me before? Didn't you?"

"...I did..." What is she getting at?

"Good, because I hate your guts!" So she just wants to throw one last insult at me. Such insults don't bother me anymore. I've been hurt with a lot worse.

"Well, good then! So we agree! So, you'll really leave me alone then will you? I'll just ignore you, and we'll just go our separate ways!" It was over, finally.

SLAP! Her hand connects with my cheek. But... how... how could it hurt? How can I feel pain? So, Mimiru, are you exploiting my situation? Then have fun! ...No. It was far more than that. She was demonstrating now that anyone could hurt me, and I would feel it. And there would be no sanctuary wherever there were people. And in The World, my one refuge... there would be no sanctuary.

"Later," she says, walking away. I reach to my cheek, unable to stop the tears falling down.

"It hurts... why me? Why me?"

-

I could not help returning to the dungeon. In the same way, I could not help remembering her, saying that... in the worst case I could reset my terminal. This is the worst case. I cannot reset my terminal. That's right. I am not sitting in front of a computer terminal. So there's no terminal I can reset. People truly are just out for themselves. …Where am I?

Before I know it, I have reached the treasure chest. This treasure chest... I've opened it before. But after I opened it... the light. And the feeling of nothing. There is nothing for me here.

Suddenly there is a wavering in the air above the treasure chest. It forms into... the cat! Again it talks to me with words I cannot hear. Its name... Maha.

"Maha." It seems close to my heart, for that is where it spoke to me. I run towards it, but it ascends out of my reach. "Hey, wait! Wait! What should I do?" I ask it. It only smiles at me, then disappears. "Do I open it?" I am reluctant to do so... what if it should unleash the light at me again? And yet... Maha smiled at me. The answer must be close. The answer must lie in the chest. I open it... and this time, I am not struck by a strange light, but rather, a golden tablet emerges, looking battered and ancient. I am instinctively drawn to touch it... and it shines with a yellow light.

"I've been waiting for you, for such a long time. I need you, just as you need me." A woman's voice... coming from nowhere? Or maybe... it is coming from the tablet itself? In any case, I feel the same feeling I had with the Heavy Blade, the feeling that goes beyond trust. Yet this was more sudden. Who do I have such a connection to? Who...? "Let us walk together. As long we walk together, I shall protect you." The tablet shines with an even brighter light, and disappears. I don't want her to leave, but there is nothing else for me here. I turn away and leave myself. I am walking to the entrance, almost automatically. I know this place by heart. I see the light at the end... and a person there. A person with foreboding, devilish horns. At once I am glad I refilled my stock of Sprite Ocarinas. I pull one out, waiting for the warping sequence to commence. ...Nothing happens.

"It's useless! I've set up a barrier. Your Sprite Ocarina is useless here," he says. Nevertheless, I won't let him hurt me! I run away. The footsteps follow more quickly after me. The footsteps stop, and the whooshing of air is heard. I turn around and block his sword as he swings it down at me. I face him and move toward the entrance, a slash, I block, slash, block, he charges and I hold him. His determination to defeat me, when I cannot hurt anything with my staff, is hilarious. On top of that, he's part of a group that's supposed to uphold justice in The World, and now he's trying to kill me. Call that justice? I smirk at him.

"Why do you run?" he asks, supposedly trying to intimidate me.

"Because I think it's fun," I answer. What else can I say?

"Is that the only reason?"

"You're not satisfied?" He pushes me away and swings his sword at my head, I duck. A slash, block, slash, hold.

"If you tell me what I want to know about the cat player character, I'll let your antics slide." This was his so-called ultimatum.

"I have nothing to tell."

"Oh, you'll talk; I'll use my sword, if I must." He charges, pushing me faster and faster... I can't hold him! He swings his sword; I am slammed against the wall. Pain! Why the pain!

"Get up!" he orders. I won't listen to you! You can kill me but I won't listen to you! I reach for my staff. He prepares to make the final blow... some unseen force pushes him away in mid-air! He hits the ground, and some metallic creature forms itself. It looks strangely like a barbell with a small sphere in the middle, and a bracelet within the sphere.

"What is this... what sort of monster is this?" he says, afraid. In truth I am afraid as well, but I can't help feeling some sort of sick pleasure in knowing that he is cowering now. He raises his sword to defend himself. The monster extends a sort of giant needle from itself and pierces straight through the sword and my assailant. The creature raises the needle up, carrying him with it. He screams in agony, and 0's and 1's appear around him, seeming strangely similar to what I experienced. If so... perhaps he will be trapped in here as well. I relish the thought of that. He drops to the ground.

The monster turns to face me. No, don't! I've already gone through your torture! I back up to the wall. The monster comes closer. A bulging is present in the thing. It is preparing... It forms into a sort of mouth, and a moaning can be heard. Is it moaning? Is it the horned one's moaning? Whatever it is, it is not attacking me. The thing disappears. Was it here just to protect me? Was this... the woman's doing? Yes. "As long as we walk together, I shall always protect you." I am happy. And it looks like now I will be happy forever.

It is night. I am at the same place where I saw the boat. Only now, whenever it comes, I will not see the man with the horns. I will only see the Heavy Axeman. She is... acceptable. I can deal with that.

"I'm here." I have accepted it now, that I will live in The World, and I do not have to have people bothering me. "That's right. I'm here. Instead of dwelling on the fact that I can't log out... I'm thinking that maybe I don't want to. It's now clear. After all, now I don't have to return to that ludicrous world." Yet again I see the insect at my feet. But now he can't bother me anymore. I stand up, my staff in hand. "I think I like it this way. It's not so bad." I crush the insect with my staff. He can't bother me anymore.

END

How did you like it? If you have any additional questions about Tsukasa or want more info on how I write the story, feel free to ask those in your reviews, and I'll get to them in the next chapter.


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